Vol.36 No.3 D'océanographie
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ISSN 1195-8898 . CMOS Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society BULLETIN SCMO La Société canadienne de météorologie et June / juin 2008 Vol.36 No.3 d'océanographie DRI Drought Research Initiative Initiative de recherche sur la sécheresse CMOS Bulletin SCMO "at the service of its members / au service de ses membres" Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) Editor / Rédacteur: Paul-André Bolduc Associate Editor / Rédactrice associée: Dorothy Neale Société canadienne de météorologie Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society et d'océanographie (SCMO) Société canadienne de météorologie et d’océanographie P.O. Box 3211, Station D Ottawa, ON, Canada K1P 6H7 E-Mail: [email protected]; Courriel: [email protected] Executive / Exécutif (until 30 May 2008) President / Président Dr. Paul G. Myers University of Alberta This issue : Large-area, prolonged droughts are among Tel: 780-492-6706; Fax: 780-492-2030 Canada’s costliest natural disasters having major impacts E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] on a wide range of sectors including agriculture, forestry, industry, municipalities, recreation, health and society, and Vice-President / Vice-président aquatic ecosystems. Although most regions of Canada Andrew Bush experience drought, the Canadian Prairies are most University of Alberta susceptible with at least 40 droughts being documented Tel: 780-492-0351; Fax: 780-492-2030 during the past two centuries. However, rarely has drought E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] been as serious or extensive as the recent 1999-2005 episode that produced the worst drought for at least a Treasurer / Trésorier hundred years in many parts of the Canadian Prairies. To Ron Hopkinson aid in addressing such extreme drought events, the Drought Custom Climate Services, Regina Research Initiative (DRI) research network has been Tel: 306-586-5489; Fax: 306-586-5489 established. The focus of DRI is to better understand the E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] factors that led to, sustained and ended this recent drought with a view to understanding its structure and to contributing Corresponding Secretary / Secrétaire-correspondant to the better anticipation of such events. To accomplish Bob Kochtubajda this objective, the drought is being considered from several Environment Canada perspectives involving atmospheric, surface (including Tel: 780-951-8811; Fax: 780-951-8634 vegetation) and sub-surface processes. Furthermore the E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] DRI research community is working closely with many partners affected by the drought so that they can better Recording Secretary / Secrétaire d'assemblée cope with such events in the future. Bill Hume Tel: 780-989-4103 Three articles in this issue address Canadian droughts E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] with a focus on the ongoing DRI Network. An overview of droughts in Canada is initially presented on page 79 with an Past-President / Président ex-officio emphasis on those occurring over the Canadian Prairies. Dr. Geoff Strong This is followed by a description on page 87 of the many Tel: 780-922-0665; Fax: 780-922-0678 facets of DRI. The issue concludes with an assessment of E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] the user community’s expectation of DRI including their identified needs on page 97. Councillors-at-large / Conseillers 1) Dr. Neil Campbell Cover page: The cover page photo was taken near Consul, Tel: 613-731-4512 Saskatchewan in April 2002. Photo courtesy of Ted Banks, E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 2) Kent Johnson Environment Canada, Kelowna Note du Rédacteur: Vous trouverez la description Tel: 604-763-3532 française de ce numéro thématique ainsi que de la E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] page couverture à la page 102. 3) Brad Shannon Environment Canada, Calgary Tel: 403-299-3534; E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] -ii- ....from the Presidents’ Desks Volume 36 No.3 June 2008 Juin 2008 Friends and colleagues: — Inside / En Bref Now that June has arrived, I am amazed at from the Presidents’ desks how fast the past year Allocution des présidents has gone by and then my by/par Paul Myers & Andy Bush page 77 time as CMOS President has come to an end. In Highlights of Recent CMOS Meetings page 78 some ways this is a relief in that I can go back to Articles focussing on some Droughts in Canada: An Overview interesting research by Barrie Bonsal page 79 questions that I'd like to look at. Yet, I am also A Drought Research Initiative for the disappointed that this Canadian Prairies by Ronald Stewart, year is over so fast John Pomeroy and Rick Lawford page 87 because of how much I have learned about User Expectations for the Drought Research aspects of science, Initiative (DRI) by Rick Lawford, Harvey Hill, especially on the Elaine Wheaton, Irene Hanuta, governmental and Alf Warkentin and Bill Girling page 97 Paul Myers management side, and Outgoing President of CMOS how much more I'd like to Improved seawater thermodynamics: How should the Président sortant de la SCMO learn and be involved in proposed change in salinity be implemented by different things that I only SCOR/IAPSO Working Group 127 page 103 got a chance to touch on during the past year. Our regular sections / Nos chroniques régulières And I do think this last issue is important. As CMOS Business / Affaires de la SCMO page 107 scientists/forecasters, most of us want to spend their time focussing on what we all love, our favourite aspects of In Memoriam page 110 meteorology and oceanography. Yet, addressing the issues that impact our field, as well as communicating our science Short News / Nouvelles brèves page 111 to the general public are issues of great importance. And it is something that I suspect almost all of us can do better - CMOS Accredited Consultants / I sure learnt that during this year as CMOS President. And Experts-conseils accrédités de la SCMO page 112 one way for this to occur is to become more involved with Printed in Kanata, Ontario, by Gilmore Printing Services Inc. CMOS, as the society continues to represent and promote Imprimé sous les presses de Gilmore Printing Services Inc., Kanata, meteorology and oceanography in Canada. And thus, Ontario. echoing all previous CMOS presidents in their final words, I highly recommend members to get involved as CMOS volunteers in your Centres, and on national committees or This publication is produced under the authority of the Canadian Council. Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Except where explicitly stated, opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Society. Finally, I would like to thank those in the national office in Ottawa, especially our executive director Ian Rutherford, Cette publication est produite sous la responsabilité de la Société without whom I would not have survived this year, and canadienne de météorologie et d’océanographie. À moins d’avis without which the society would not function. And so to contraire, les opinions exprimées sont celles des auteurs et ne conclude I wish the best for our new incoming president reflètent pas nécessairement celles de la Société. Andy Bush as I prepare to pass off the position to him. Paul Myers Outgoing President / Président sortant Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Société canadienne de météorologie et d’océanographie CMOS exists for the advancement of meteorology and oceanography in Canada. Le but de la SCMO est de stimuler l'intérêt pour la (Continued on next page / Suite à la page suivante) météorologie et l'océanographie au Canada. -77- CMOS Bulletin SCMO Vol.36, No.3 ...from the Presidents’ desks (Continued & suite) Highlights of Recent CMOS Meetings March Council Meeting # Updating status of Congresses: Kelowna, 2008, Halifax, 2009 and Ottawa, 2010; # Discussing the relevent agreements needed between CMOS and CGU for the 2010 congress to be joint between the two societies; # Updates on new membership applications and society membership numbers; # Overview of the status of the CMOS Tour Speaker this year - what had occurred and which talks were still to be given; # Council approval of nominees for awards from the Andy Bush Prizes and Awards Committee; Incoming President of CMOS # Council approval of Fellow candidates from the Fellows Nouveau président de la SCMO Committee; # Discussion of issues related to awards, membership Being literally next door to Paul Myers, I can attest to the and getting sufficient nominations for some awards (i.e. amount of effort he has put in as President of CMOS. I think not all CMOS awards will be awarded this year we owe Paul a huge collective thanks for his efforts over the because of a lack of nominations, even with extensions past year and, Paul, have one fantastic and well-earned of the deadlines); # sabbatical! I would also like to thank and pay my respects Appointment of CMOS Audit Committee; # to Ian Rutherford, for steering things in the right way, at the Discussion of the possibility of having flight service right time. specialists become part of CMOS, with CMOS governing their accreditation process; # The next few years will be challenging indeed. With the Approval of an update policy on travel expenses; # potential end of funding through the Canadian Foundation Presentation of a discussion paper on congress for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) it is not finances, with a decision to use the Halifax congress clear what avenue researchers in Atmospheric, Oceanic, or (with the agreement of the Halifax LAC) as a test bed Cryospheric Sciences might pursue given NSERC's woeful for dealing with more of the finances at a national level; # history for Environmental Sciences reallocations. One Presentation of a discussion paper related to CMOS' hopeful pursuit will be continuing our link with the Canadian financial investments and what rate of return the Geophysical Union (CGU) and I am optimistic that we can society should look to get, considering the needs to form a unified front for geophysics, atmospheric physics, preserve the capital versus growth; # oceanography and cryospheric dynamics.